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The Rain and John Cage
by Bart Mallio
I am leery of approximations—
My footnotes, my universal quantum
Theories. I hear rain and wind as spare
Percussion spattered against a white-noise
Field, panned left to right in the mix.
But John Cage did not invent the rain.
Backwards it have I—as if Cage wrote “Rain”
And God, hearing it at some ill-attended
College modern music recital,
Cribbed it,
And snuck it onto the set list under
A pseudonom-de-guerre.
However, I do like
This performance: now with the dopplering
Jet overhead, now with distinct pitches—
Rain on rain in a rain gutter,
Like Balinese metalophones.
(6/20/01-7/14/01)